Volunteer Blogs

Success in the City - 4th Annual Dreamforce Volunteer Project

Julie Trell — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 21:22:23 -0500

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A successful volunteer event with over 120 customers, partners, employees, and community members spend the day in the rain at Daniel Webster Elementary school

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November 11, 2008 San Francisco, CA

On Saturday, November 1st, over a hundred salesforce.com customers, partners, and employees came out in the rain to volunteer at Daniel Webster Elementary school. Due to major budget cuts this school is in desperate need to brighten up the building to make for a more inviting and conducive place for learning. Volunteers picked up their paint brushes and transformed the classrooms, the cafeteria, and the school office into a bright and colorful learning environment. Some volunteers including our sponsoring partner Astadia, along with other Power of Us partners including as VerticalResponse and Exponent Partners,ventured out in the rain to help remove some concrete, plant new trees, and some California native plants in front of the school. While other volunteers spent their time building over 20 planter boxes and benches for Daniel Webster and other local elementary schools. Even the youth had a special project creating colorful mosaic stepping stones for the local schools. Notable volunteers including Jim Steele, Chief Customer office and President of International Operations and former San Francisco Mayor Art Agnos spent the entire day giving their skills and enthusiasm to improve the school and connect with others on the same mission.

Jim SteeleThis was an amazing collaboration community project between salesforce.com, Astaida, Rebuilding Together SF, the Potrero Residents Education Fund, Plant SF, Friends of the Urban Forest, and the Depart of Public Works, and many other community members. Thank you all for getting involved and making a significant impact on Daniel Webster Elementary!

More photos and video to follow soon.....

Salesforce.com Sales Executives Help Carve Halloween

Julie Trell — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 21:43:08 -0400

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Several Salesforce.com account executives spend an afternoon working 1 on 1 with a young person from Mid-Peninsula Boys and Girls Club in San Mateo.

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Dear Salesforce.com Volunteers,

What a pleasure it was to have the opportunity to host such a wonderful group of volunteers and to share with you the Mid-Peninsula Boys & Girls Club's mission and programs.

Our partnership with Salesforce.com is a valuable one. On behalf of the Board of Directors, Club Staff, and especially our members, I want to thank you for your help in strengthening our relationship with the communities we serve. It is your generosity, as Salesforce.com employees, that ensures our organization can continue being "The Positive Place for Kids".

As a reminder to all, these are a few of the many ways you can help our Club and your community:

Evening Enrichment Program: matches adult volunteers with one club member in need of academic assistance. The commitment is only one-night per week (M-Th, 6:15p - 7:15p) at our San Mateo Clubhouse.

Giving Tree Program: is our Holiday-gift drive. During the Holidays, the MPBGC hosts three (3) parties that are open to the whole community. At the end of this Holiday Celebration, each child who attends receives a gift. (Salesforce.com was one of our outstanding, major donors for the 2007 Giving Tree Program.)

Donate: You can make a difference in the lives of our members by donating to our Club. Log on to our secure website at: www.midpenbgc.org

Check out the employees and kids in action.

Mark P. Washbush

Development Director

Mid-Peninsula Boys & Girls Club

Volunteer Event At Dreamforce

Julie Trell — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 11:56:48 -0400

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Come be a part of one of our biggest community volunteer projects of the year!

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Start your Dreamforce experience right!!
(But you don't have to be registered for Dreamforce!)

Join the Foundation and salesforce.com's customers, partners and other community partners for a day of volunteer service and networking.

See the results here!

When: Saturday, November 1st from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm. RAIN OR SHINE!
Where: Daniel Webster Elementary School 456 Missouri Street, San Francisco
Who: YOU, our customers, partners, nonprofits and prospects, lead by Rebuilding Together SF and the Salesforce.com Foundation and sponsored by Astadia
What: Collaborative improvement projects! Get ready to pull out the paint brushes, flex your green thumb, and get creative by adding a spark to a school in need. We will also have a fun youth project for those 10 years and older.

Here is the general schedule for the day's event:

8:30--9:00 a.m.	Volunteer registration
9:30 a.m.	Welcome briefing
9:45 a.m.	Revitalization and improvement projects begin
11:30 a.m. to 1:30 pm	Lunch (In Shifts)
3:00 p.m.	Clean up begins and finalizing project completion
4:00 p.m.	End of the day celebration and project concludes

The local community organization PREfund will be providing us with some amazing lunch and LIVE music!

Address:
Daniel Webster Elementary School
486 Missouri Street
San Francisco, CA 94107

Transportation :
We will have two bio diesel shuttles picking up volunteers from these two locations at 8:30 sharp and the will pick you up at the end of the volunteer event.

Moscone Center SOUTH                            Hilton
747 Howard St                                             333 O'Farrell Street
San Francisco                                              San Francisco, CA 94102

If you would like to join, or would like more information, contact Sean Rosas

Team Toronto Swings for Change!

Erin Juarez — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 12:39:56 -0400

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Daryl Mason shares the success of salesforce.com's First Annual "Swing for Change" Tournament benefiting Toronto's Kiwanis Boys and Girls Club.

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Toronto, August 21, 2008

The Toronto Office took the baseball field back in August to compete for their favorite Charities.  Approximately 125 employees participated in the 1st Annual Salesforce.com Baseball tournament coined, "Swing for Change."  All eight teams paid a registration fee with the idea that the winning team would get to donate all the winnings to their charity of their choice. Two of salesforce.com's certified partners, RainMaker LLC and V2 Strategic Advisors donated the food and the diamonds respectively to ensure that all funds raised could go to the chosen charity.  The tournament was a HUGE success seeing employees come together and compete for many different causes ranging from The Canadian Cancer Society to the Alzheimer's Society.  In the end, it was the Kiwanis Boys & Girls Club that received a cheque for over $5000.00 to go toward their youth programs.  Thanks to all the participants and volunteers that made the day an amazing success!

Chicago employees help provide much needed facelift to Cleanslate

Erin Juarez — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 12:32:40 -0400

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Kelly Buehring and Alan Arun reflect on their time spent painting with Cleanslate and the Cara Program

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September, 19, 2008 Chicago, IL Five committed employees from Salesforce.com volunteered their time and painting skills to provide a much needed facelift to a recently acquired building for The Cara Program's social enterprise, Cleanslate.

The Cara Program is a non-profit organization assisting homeless and at-risk Chicagoans to achieve real and lasting success through full-time employment with benefits. Cara's goal is to assist 250 people in 2008, and are closely approaching their goal with a total of 146 employed so far!

Cleanslate is a neighborhood beautification business created to provide work experience for students with little to no work history, or a conviction background that prevents immediate employment. Because Cleanslate staff members are busy beautifying Chicago, there is not much time and little funding available in order to beautify the Cleanslate Hub itself, and that's where our volunteers stepped in. Our employees extended a helping hand to get a much needed project accomplished for the Cleanslate family.

*Here are notes from Salesforce.com employees, Kelly Buehring and Alan Arun reflecting on their time spent with Cleanslate and the Cara Program.

As a new member of our Salesforce.com family in Chicago I would like to extend great thanks to such a wonderful opportunity to give back to our community. While many of us come from different backgrounds be it, culture, religion, race, we all share the same Salesforce.com value, community empowerment. Cleanslate is a perfect example of community empowerment and I'm proud to say that I got a chance to give back to an organization that helps so many individuals succeed in today's workforce.

It was also really cool to see the saleforce.com team and the Cleanslate staff pitched in and worked hard without any real oversight. What was most enjoyable was everyone's attention to detail. The staff at Cleanslate was really nice. Their compliments throughout our stay there helped instill confidence in some of us newbie's and made this an enjoyable experience as well. It was fun hanging out with my team members and help out a worthy cause in the process. We should do this more often!

At the end of the day Tekorah at Cleanslate said, "The painting was great. The Salesforce.com team had one thing in mind which was to make a difference, and that is exactly what they achieved. We at Cleanslate, now have a fresh new look thanks to Salesforce.com"

Fun Times in Tanzania

srosas — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 10:43:32 -0400

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Ian Sharpe take 3 weeks to make a different in Tanzania

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San Francisco, July 2008

Why Tanzania?

Culture-Tanzania is made up of 126 different tribes, each tribe has a unique way of living.
Geography-Tanzania is home to Mount Kilimanjaro, The Ngorongoro Crater, Serengeti and Zanzibar.
Chance to help children- 50 percent of children attend primary school however only 4 percent attend secondary school. This is because many families are too poor to spend the money for education. Also, the HIV/AIDS epidemic has claimed many children's mothers and fathers, leaving many children in foster care or government run orphanages.

Where in Tanzania did you go?

I lived in the small town of Moshi, in the Kilimanjaro region. The city population is around 200,000, with a large farming community. The two main tribes in the region are the Chaaga and the Maasi.

What did you do?

I volunteered at a school named Kilimahewa, it is a community based organization that was founded in September 2006. Kilimahewa is owned by the Kilimahewa community members. It is an informal school, which provided educational activities for teenagers between the ages of 15-19. I taught English, Geography and Mathematics from June 15-July 11^th 2008.

Kilimahewa was initially known as a local brew drinking center. It is now a learning center for the Kilimahewa community specifically focused on providing poor women's children, orphans and youth vulnerable to street violence a place to learn.

What we were able to accomplish!!!

Finished second room for vocational and advanced classes.

Tested each student to determine where they stood on core subjects.
Learned about Kilimahewa culture, life, and goals.
Shared my life with the students and felt I was able to spark their interests and dreams.
Smiled and laughed a lot with one another.
It was very powerful to see how much they loved learning and how eager they were to be engaged and tested.

What other volunteer activities did you participate in?

Tuleeni Orphanage- ages 2-14
Upenda Orphanage- ages 2-6
Moshi Primary School- ages 8-10
First ever Moshi AIDS awareness walk
Jipa Moya women's group
Kilimahewa Community Leadership meetings and planning

BizAcademy Intern, Leeann shares her reflections on the summer!

Julie Trell — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 12:59:56 -0400

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Leeann describes her experience as a Foundation Community Coordinator and participant in two summer workshops.

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San Francisco, CA, US July 2008

Challenge of a lifetime? I have had the privilege of being in two of the three BizAcademy Workshops this summer. With both of them being a challenge and something new to learn, I not only learned how to code or how to do "on mouse over out" or that quotation mark is not in the right place, I had the challenge of presenting in front of a group or my peers and with four very talented adults! I not only learned how to structure my presentation or learned how to own a pause and eliminate fillers ("umm", "like", "yeah") I learned a lot about myself and am not afraid to get up in front of my group as long as I have my structure! I cannot thank the Foundation Team enough for having these wonderful workshops. The only thing that I can do is look forward to the last workshop and can't wait to put those finishing touches on so that my training wheels can come off!

I have also had the privilege on being apart of the Mentor/Mentee Program here at Salesforce. This program that allows the BizAcademy graduates to have a Mentor and experience a different kind of relationship. As a mentee, my mentor is there to help me with all those things that I will need help with. Just being there to lend a ear or helping to seek out a job, or for many of us being there to help fill out college applications. That process can be grueling and its nice to have someone to help along the way. I heard it said in the BizAcademy Amazing Presentation Skills Workshop that our mentors can also assist us in our presentation skills informing us what we can improve on or what the presentation can use. It's great to have a mentor to be an audience when we have a presentation that needs practice. The mentors are there for us for whatever it is that we may need. I have heard it said that you can define a mentor as a live resource page.

It is a experience that I am thankful to have. This program has impacted me in many ways. The biggest way that it has impacted me was having someone be a listening ear. My mentor has been there every morning! I am able to chat with her for a minimum of ten minutes and that has impacted me. I know that I can count on her! This is a fantastic program and I am thankful that I am apart of mentor/mentee program!

Leeann C

Foundation Community Involvement Coordinator - Summer 2008

12 Toronto youth energized by BizAcademy

Kimberly Hunt — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 09:24:17 -0400

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Youth from Christie-Ossington Neighbourhood Centre spend a week in BizAcademy

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Written by Ellen Gardner, Principal, Write to Know Communications

July 14 - 18, 2008 Toronto, Canada For 18-year old Nadia Thompson, her biggest takeaway from the BizAcademy program, was the unique business skills gained from the integrated social entrepreneurship curriculum. As a student in the international development field, Nadia was intrigued by the program content and diversity of activities. "I could not go to school and learn the stuff I acquired here in one week....it was everything from mentors to business dining etiquette to the elements of a great elevator pitch."

Nadia was one of 12 high-school and university students, selected by the Christie-Ossinton Neighbourhood Centre (CONC) to participate in this year's BizAcademy, a unique program sponsored by the Salesforce.com Foundation. In sessions held around the world, young people from underserved urban areas are given the opportunity to learn how to run a business. In Toronto, the students' crash course on the basics of developing a social enterprise - everything from creating the business and financial plan, to working with creative advertising gurus to develop creative marketing pieces - was facilitated by working closely with experienced employee mentors from salesforce.com and business mentors from the community.

During this year's Toronto session, participants were given the challenge of developing a marketing plan for a social enterprise focused on the creation of murals and the development of a sound studio for young artists and performers. Their task was to develop a written marketing plan, a creative package and to pitch their plans to a board of directors. At the end of the week, a winning team was selected and each winner received an iPod shuffle.

"We came up with this business idea for the participants since Christie-Ossington Neighbourhood Centre is already engaged in a graffiti arts program with at-risk teens," said Lynn Daley, Executive Director of CONC.

For some of the students, this was their first experience of working as part of a team and it's an eye-opener. "For me it was all about accountability," says Nadia Thompson, who assumed the role of President of Business Development for her Project PAYSO Marketing Team. Nadia felt the pressure to succeed. She says, "I knew that if we failed, as a leader I would be responsible and I wasn't going to let that happen. I kept saying to them ‘We're going to win! We're going to win!'" (Nadia's team went on to win).

Over the five day program, the salesforce.com mentors dropped their professional veneer and became business coaches, challenging the students to figure it out themselves. "They have the knowledge but they never told us what to do," said Community ARK (Art Reflecting Knowledge) President, Venessa Chevers-Forrestor, 21. "They showed us how to crunch the numbers and guided us on when to focus on the big picture and when to focus on the details."

Interspersed with their training and planning sessions, the students also heard from real-life entrepreneurs. Fitness professionals and owners of FitMom Canada, Andrea Page and Fenley Fearon recounted their early challenges and the importance of having a vision for your business. "It helps to get out of the headspace of always turning what you love into a money-making venture," said Fenley. "The whole journey should be learning about yourself and being joyful. If money is your only motivation, it can soon become meaningless."

Etiquette Consultant, Karyln Percill provided insight on the business of etiquette dining and dressing for success, while Ketan Manohar, Senior Copywriter of Agency 59 spent a half day on Toronto Island with the teams working on creative marketing design. Later on they spent an inspiring hour with Tamara Dawit, Executive Director and Founder of The 411 Initiative for Change.

The real stars of the week were the students themselves who overcame their nervousness and lack of experience, replacing it with enthusiasm and determination as they stood up on the final day to pitch their business and marketing plans to the ‘investors'. Although they were competing for the big prize, the students showed only pride and respect for each other as they showcased their accomplishments. "It was great to hear the investors' feedback, they were so encouraging," said Cris Meillon, another participant.

It was a week full of lessons and surprises, an exciting leap for tomorrow's artists, activists, and entrepreneurs who, until this program, may have heard scant praise and positive feedback. "They were forced to step outside of themselves and their own insecurities and concentrate on working together to develop a remarkable marketing plan for an emerging social enterprise," said Pramilla Ramdahani, President of the Se-Fad Group who developed the unique curriculum and facilitated the program on behalf of Christie-Ossington for the past two years. "At the end of the program they all realized their potential as agents of social change- the social entrepreneurs of tomorrow"

As they clutched their graduation certificates and said good-bye to new friends, the students departed with a new concept of ‘no limits'. "Business is not easy, it's hard work," said Nadia, "but we learned that by working together with people who are encouraging you and supporting you, your goals are attainable." Venessa agreed. "This week I learned not to give up. Keep going, be persistent and keep doing it."

Toronto Goes Green with a Day of Wetland Planting

Erin Juarez — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 13:06:36 -0400

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Nick Partington reflects on his day of environmental stewardship in Toronto's Don River Watershed

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July 8, 2008 Toronto Canada

The wetland wildflower planting event in the Don River watershed with Toronto Parks, Forestry and Recreation was great. There were seven of us on Tuesday July 8th and we spent two hours planting shrubs in a small meadow. The wet meadow we tended was created to provide desperately needed habitat for amphibians in an area that is highly urbanized. The plants helped to filter the water of impurities before it runs into the Don River.

The day was spent preserving the fragile ecoystem of the Don River Watershed. The weather was beautiful and we managed to plant quite a few shrubs - around 20 each! Claire, the volunteer coordinator, was really nice and she showed us what we needed to know to complete the activity. As one employee put it the best part of the day was "spending time with other SFDC employees and helping the community!". I would recommend this to other teams that want to 'get their hands dirty.'

Professional Services East/Central Volunteer at the New Jersey Community FoodBank

Erin Juarez — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 09:37:42 -0400

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Intern Erin Juarez reflects on her experience volunteering with the New Jersey Community FoodBank.

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July 23, 2008 Atlantic City, NJ
On Wednesday July 23^rd, Salesforce.com employees helped the Community FoodBank of South New Jersey step a little closer to their mission of alleviating the direct effects of hunger and poverty in Atlantic City. 61 members of the Professional Services East/Central team worked together to prepare hundreds of pre-boxed groceries and cans for distribution to families in need.

Charged with the goal of reducing the number of hungry families in the greater Atlantic City area, the FoodBank of South New Jersey houses a food pantry, supply warehouse and even a community garden which helps reduce the cost of fresh vegetables for their clients. Serving upwards of 300 families a day, volunteers from groups like salesforce.com help to keep the facility running smoothly and make a large impact on the community.

Our day started with Dwayne, the FoodBank's volunteer coordinator, outlining the need for our volunteer efforts. He underscored the impact that our day of service would have on both the organization and the community it serves. "With food prices soaring, the amount of hungry people coming through our doors has dramatically increased," said Dwayne as he explained the functions of the FoodBank. The FoodBank is a last resort for a lot of families and many of salesforce.com volunteers found the experience to be, as one employee put it, "very humbling,"

Divided into three groups, the salesforce.com volunteers were ready to lend a helping hand to accomplish the tasks set before them. Can sorting, grocery box preparation and outdoor work were all enthusiastically completed with assembly line efficiency and big smiles. The salesforce.com team wowed the agency with all they accomplished in the short period of time. There were thousands of cans sorted (with many of us learning how to accurately identify a fruit from a vegetable) and hundreds of grocery boxes prepared in order to leave the Community FoodBank of New Jersey with the capacity to better serve both families and a community in need.

I have to say that in my three months with the Salesforce.com Foundation, I have found myself being inspired over and over again by the generosity and shear excitement exhibited by our employees. Every volunteer activity presents a surmountable challenge met by a willingness to make a large impact on the communities in which we work and live. The amount of commitment given to social change makes salesforce.com employees true beacons of hope.

Volunteer Blogs

Success in the City - 4th Annual Dreamforce Volunteer Project

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Salesforce.com Sales Executives Help Carve Halloween

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Volunteer Event At Dreamforce

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Start your Dreamforce experience right!! (But you don't have to be registered for Dreamforce!)

Team Toronto Swings for Change!

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Chicago employees help provide much needed facelift to Cleanslate

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Fun Times in Tanzania

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BizAcademy Intern, Leeann shares her reflections on the summer!

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12 Toronto youth energized by BizAcademy

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Toronto Goes Green with a Day of Wetland Planting

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Professional Services East/Central Volunteer at the New Jersey Community FoodBank

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Start your Dreamforce experience right!!
(But you don't have to be registered for Dreamforce!)